D.C. United Tattoos and Baltimore Ravens Quotes

I was gonna go to Ravens practice today, but instead I went to D.C. United practice. Here are the two most important things I missed from Ravens practice, with thanks to Ravens beat writer Camille Powell.

1) Brian Billick on B.J. Sams: "I'll go back to the Chris Rock example. You never disrespect someone and hit them. But you'd sure like to shake the [bleep] out of him."

2) LB Bart Scott on the Ravens' linebacking trio: "Together, it's like Voltron, man. You put us all together, and when we come together, we're complete."

Chris Rock and Voltron in one day. Solid.

And here's what happened at United practice, besides something cool, which I'll write about later:

1) Freddy Adu strolled down the hallways at RFK singing "Hail to the Redskins," and then ducked his head into the media room and sang "Hail to the Redskins." I asked him if he could complete the lyrics for us; "just the first couple words," he said. "I'll learn the whole thing by the end of this season, I promise."

2) Alecko Eskandarian explained to me the origins of his tattoo: An Armenian cross on his right biceps, accompanied by his initials in Armenian, which looks something like "u.r." in English. The cross image was based on a necklace that's been passed down through the family, but Esky wasn't willing to say his was the best tattoo on the team. He said Matias Donnet has an interesting tattoo on his back. A troll of some sort, Esky said. "The Argentinian Mickey Mouse," he said.

Troy Perkins, he said, has the worst. It's a little cross and a crown, on the right biceps, but small and slightly faded and not all that impressive.

"It's almost 10 years old," Troy explained.

"You got it when you were 12, huh?" Esky said. "Cool.

But it turns out that the tattoo is about eight years old, and that Perkins got it when he was 17, making him now 25, and not 22, as Esky had assumed.

"How old are you dude? My bad," Esky said.

"You're an idiot," Troy said.

Not sure if anyone saw the Comcast piece on DeShawn Stevenson and Gilbert Arenas and their tattoos, but Stevenson told Comcast, like he told me, that offseason tattoo parties were a form of team bonding, a measure of team chemistry. This is why I was attempting to encourage a group dicsussion of DCU tattoos. Trying to increase the chemistry.